The story of the Norbertine order is portrayed on the SNC campus.

Life in Community: A Brief History of the Norbertines

by Rob Kaiser

Many medieval knights were hired thugs. Paid to keep order in an age devoid of cops and roiling with brutality, they often targeted innocent people with their capricious cruelty and violent behavior.

Through this dark and bloody feudal world strode a lanky missionary preacher doggedly pressing for peace and mercy: Norbert of Xanten. Confronted with demoralized clergy and enslaved serfs, Norbert had plenty of work to do. But he wasn’t alone. In his travels, he encountered many likeminded reformers. In Paris there were the Canons of St. Victor, parish clergy who adopted the ascetic ideals of William of Champagne. At Clairvaux and Citeaux there were monks whose churches had plain wooden crosses and bare walls. And there was the Cistercian administrative system, which created an international federation of monasteries with centralized power but independent houses. 

Like that of the Roman Catholic order Norbert started, which next year celebrates its 900th anniversary in a series of jubilee events scheduled to kick off this fall, the headstrong preacher’s story is full of twists, trials, and triumphs, and it has no ending. Norbert’s legacy lives on, in the dozens of abbeys and priories from the United States to Poland and the communities they enrich, where life is lived in intentional community in service to the common good, countercultural as that may seem. And the Norbertine way is as relevant and appealing today as it ever was, despite the order’s having endured many challenges and perils since Norbert established the first abbey in 1121.

Today the Norbertine order numbers more than 1,300 members worldwide, including priests, sisters, brothers, deacons and novices, and Norbertine abbeys, priories and convents are established and active in 23 countries.

“They’re in North and South America, Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe – influencing the lives of a multitude of peoples and cultures,” says Father James P. Herring of Immaculate Conception Priory, in Middletown, Delaware. In the United States, Norbertine foundations are in De Pere, Wisconsin, and Chicago, Illinois; Paoli, Pennsylvania, and Middletown, Delaware; Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Silverado, California. 

History hasn’t always been kind to the Norbertines, however. Among the more difficult periods they had to navigate was the bloodbath of the French Revolution, which fomented hatred toward the Catholic Church and innumerable priests. Religious and lay Catholics both were killed, including St. Pierre-Adrien Toulorge, who spent most of the Revolution in hiding so he could celebrate Holy Mass and the sacraments in secret, sparing the lives of his flock. Toulorge was arrested on Sept. 2, 1793, and sentenced to the guillotine. His dying words: “God, I beg you to forgive my enemies.” 

The Thirty Years War (1618-1648) saw the destruction of many houses; In all, about 90 abbeys were shuttered during the French Revolution.

“With that kind of history, to have made it 900 years – it’s something just to celebrate the fact that you’ve survived,” says Daylesford Abbey’s Father Andrew Ciferni, chair of the board of trustees at St. Norbert College in De Pere.

And yet, as it always has been, Norbert’s vision of the world is being tested still today, says Father Bradley R. Vanden Branden of St. Norbert Abbey in De Pere, Wisconsin.  

“A more immediate challenge is how to live a life in common amid so much polarization,” Vanden Branden says. “We’ve become so fractured and divisive. . . . I would hope in 50 years we would still be seen as an example of living a common life.”

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What 900 Years Mean 
What does the Norbertine order’s being around for 900 years mean to you?

Father James P. Herring of Immaculate Conception Priory, in Middletown, Delaware:
“That this order of men and women continues in the religious life and in the traditions established by St. Norbert and his early followers 900 years ago is a testament to his faith in Jesus Christ and the faith of so many before me. For 900 years, the followers of St. Norbert have lived by word and example the Norbertine way of life in the Catholic Church and continue to hand it on to countless men and women.”

Father Chrysostom Baer of St. Michael's Abbey, in Orange County, California: 
“It means that we have been faithful to our charism. As St. Norbert promised, if we did three things, our order would last until the coming of Christ: cleanliness around the altar, correction of faults, and care for the poor.”

Father Eugene Gries of Santa María de la Vid Abbey, in Albuquerque, New Mexico:
“Norbert had a good vision for the reform of clergy.”

Father Joel Garner of Santa María de la Vid Abbey, in Albuquerque, New Mexico:
“The fact that the Norbertine way life has been around for 900 years indicates to me that it is deeply grounded in the principles of a religious tradition. These principles derive from the Gospel, the rule of Augustine, and the constitutions of the order which have been adapted from age to age. It also means to me that it has been resilient during the many periods of deep turmoil over the centuries.”

Fr. Brad Vanden Branden of St. Norbert Abbey in De Pere, Wisconsin: 
“I just think it’s 900 years, especially in a society that’s every changing and values newness and innovation. . . . To be part of something that’s 900 years old. There’s something about this way of life that can stand the test of time, especially in a time of hatred and sickness. It gives us some hope.”

Father Andrew Ciferni of Daylesford Abbey in Paoli, Pennsylvania and chair of the board of trustees at St. Norbert College in De Pere:, Wisconsin:
“It says that the holy spirit had and has something to do with our survival.”

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Who Are the Norbertine Saints?
Blessed Hugh of Fosse
St. Norbert’s first disciple and the man who ran the abbey whenever St. Norbert was away, which was quite often, Hugh provided a steadying hand for a new congregation. 

St. Evermode
Like Blessed Hugh, he was one of the original Norbertines. Unlike Hugh, he tagged along with the traveling St. Norbert and he was with him when he died at Magdeburg 1134. 

St. Frederick of Hallum  
Another early Norbertine saint (1113-1175), he brought the Canons Regular to the Netherlands and founded Mariengaard Abbey, becoming its first abbot. He also founded Bethlehem Abbey, for Norbertine canonesses.

St. Hermann Joseph
Born in Cologne in 1150, he was the mystic of the group. He wrote tracts on Our Lord and the Blessed Virgin, as well as a commentary on The Caniticle of Canticles, which is now lost. He also repaired clocks.

St. Godfrey of Cappenberg
Like St. Norbert himself, he was born to a noble family, but once he met Norbert, he convinced his wife that he was a better canon than a husband. He wasn’t even 30 years old when he died. 

St. Gilbert
He participated in the Second Crusade, which had been preached by Norbert’s friend St. Bernard and ended in disaster. Like St. Godfrey, he convinced his wife his life was best spent serving God.

St. Pierre-Adrien Toulorge
Born in 1757, he never knew Norbert. He was ordained when he was 25. He was executed during the French Revolution.

This information is from the National Catholic Register.

Blessed Gertrude
Gertrude was born in 1227 and had been dedicated to God from the womb. Before her birth she was offered to the Premonstratensian Canons of Rommersdorf if a boy, or the Premonstratensian Canonesses of Altenberg near Wetzlar if a girl.

Blessed Bronislava
In 1219, at the age of 16, Bronislava entered the cloister of the Norbertine nuns at Zwierzyniec in Krakow. Bronislava’s devout prayer, her meditation on the Passion of Christ, and her veneration of the Holy Cross left a deep impression on her contemporaries.

Blessed Hroznata
Hroznata was a Czech nobleman born around 1170. The traditions relates that he was clothed at Rome by Pope Innocent III in the white habit of the Norbertine Order.

Blessed James Kern
Born Francis Alexander Kern in 1897, he entered the Minor Seminary in Hollabrunn at age 11. After serving, and being wounded, in World War I, he eventually received the white habit of St. Norbert and the religious name “James” (after the Norbertine martyr St. James Lacoupe).

St. Isfrid
Isfrid was chosen as successor of St. Evermode, bishop of Ratzeburg, in 1178. He defended the rights of his people against the intrigues of Emperor Frederick and his vassal, Bernard of Anhalt.

St. Adrian
On July 9, 1572, nineteen priests and religious were hanged in Gorcum on account of their loyalty to the Catholic faith. Among them was Adrian Jansen, an exemplary priest and a true apostle.

St. James
James Lacops is associated closely with St. Ardian, as he was martyred in the same event and was also a canon of Middelburg.

St. Ludolph
Ludolph was a Norbertine canon at the cathedral of Ratzeburg where for a time he held the office of provisor. He was elected bishop of Ratzeburg in 1236.

St. Siard
Siard studied in the abbey school of Mariëngaarde and asked for admission to the novitiate in 1175. He was elected the fifth abbot of Mariëngaarde in 1194.

This information is from the Perpetual Calendar of Order Saints and Blesseds.

Nov. 17, 2020